Muhammad Ali, O.J. Simpson, Michael Jordan, and the Elephant in the Room

"I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me nigger," Muhammad Ali famously said as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War. "No, I am not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over ... This is the day when such evils must come to an end."

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Although white audiences might not have seen Ali's race (at least until much later, when he was a member of the Nation of Islam), he was very explicit throughout his career about being a black man and supporting black people.

And while some say he paved the way for the next generation of celebrity activists, just because an athlete appears to transcend race doesn't make it so. If anything, there's no such thing as transcending race, especially if you are a black man. Being good at sports may make people suppress their outright racism, but it does not go away, and it does not make you immune to it. Ali was explicit about this.

O.J. Simpson thought he was above this concept: "I'm not black; I'm O.J." And yet, O.J.'s trial was a tipping point in regards to power for black men in America. He might have been able to get off from a conviction because he was rich and powerful, but the rhetoric surrounding the trial was almost exclusively based on the color of his skin, and the treatment of blacks by the LAPD.

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Michael Jordan was something of a first, both as a black athlete and as an athlete as a whole. He never spoke explicitly about his experiences as a black man. He never claimed to transcend race. He was, in all senses, a seemingly private figure who also sold his visage to become successful. He sold an ideal of himself rather than his actual self. We know Jordan more for the things he did on the court than for what he did off.

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Their various trajectories exemplify how much race is still an ingrained issue in the practice of sports. One did not shy away from his race and was shunned for it (Ali). One rejected his race and was vilified for it (Simpson). And one said nothing and found the most success of all (Jordan). Those ideals don't stand in the real world though, at least not all of the time. The sports world is a concentrated environment of money, athleticism, and celebrity. Real life isn't as clean.

The transactions between men are not based on championships and sponsorship deals. Being a black man (or a black person in general) is not something that can simply be ignored.

Greatness is a lineage. We share narratives of what humans are capable of, even if that capability is only distilled in the body of one person. We remember Ali for his grace, the majesty and loveliness of his athleticism, the way he moved before our eyes. In Ali's life outside of the ring, his actions–as an outspoken black activist, as an anti-war advocate, as a humanitarian–speak to that same grace.